I found this crazy glitch when I was derusting for sub 19. But I think with the discovery of this glitch a 16 is possible. Especially with FDS. So basically there's a certain frame when on the water where you don't get hit. If you jump on that frame you can skip along the water like a stone if you keep the right rhythm. Sorry the video drops frames:

I can confirm this does work on console. I've been running on ps2, since I don't own a ps1, and this glitch seems to work pretty well. Since it seems like it would only really help in Littlefoot's stages, messing up a water hop and having to reset wouldn't be that time consuming or risky.